non-profit

stephendale

Knowledge Hub will support service improvement, efficiencies and innovation across UK local government. It is a “Web 2” social media development and offers opportunities to foster greater collaboration across the sector and wider use of digitally based information such as open and linked data. Knowledge Hub builds on the successful Communities of Practice (CoP) space with over 75,000 registered users and is considered the most advanced online practitioner group in the public sector.

Access to the new environment will allow councillors, officers and practitioners across the public sector to take advantage of new media tools and techniques for knowledge sharing and improvement.

More than just an IT solution, the KHub is a far-sighted social media resource that could lead to a major cultural change in the public sector

 1. One of the goals of the Knowledge Hub is to join-up conversations happening across the social web, according to topic or meme,  and link these topics/memes to user profiles (e.g. if I'm a Planning Officer I will see conversations associated with planning). Do you think this is achievable, or is it one step beyond what technology will allow? 

2. The Knowledge Hub will bring together communities of practice with data intelligence (statistics, metrics, open and linked data published by government). Do you think this will drive improvement in public services? 

3. The Knowledge Hub will provide tools to build new applications (e.g. mashups) using open/linked public data, for example, visualisations of crime hot-spots. Do you think there is a marketplace for building these apps, and what (if any) will be the benefit to ordinary citizens?

4. Do you know of any similar initiatives to the Knowledge Hub in other countries?

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KM for business is what we're mostly talking about, by default. At best, we envisage KM for government or for nonprofit organizations. We commonly think that the issues and usage of KM are the same, whatever the environment.

Development projects, such as social entrepreneurship of charity projects in developing countries, are of course different from usual business/government projects. Or are they? Certainly, the circumstances in which these development projects are run may be difficult, but are their KM challenges fundamentally different from day-to-day KM? Isn't it also about bringing a community together (in this case, international development practitioners) and sharing knowledge and experience? Or is the cultural aspect more important, working with a North-South mix of participants, large and small organizations (think UN and local NGO), academics, policy makers, and activists, etc.

In this chat, we'd like to explore:

• What's specific about KM4DEV?
• How can KM provide (better) support for development projects?
• How can we, as a community, leverage our KM capabilities for development?